


Waiting Game (AKA Snapshots of a Secret Relationship)

by Brooklyn_Knight



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: And angst, Blatant Flirting, F/M, and fluff, be warned, oblivious Barba, there will be smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 10:09:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9886214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brooklyn_Knight/pseuds/Brooklyn_Knight
Summary: After immigrating from Quebec, Sophia-Noelle Deveaux made a life for herself as a detective with Manhattan’s SVU. Not lacking in comforts and content with her job, life was good for the baby faced detective. Enter the squad’s new ADA, the sharp dressed, and sharper tongued, Rafael Barba. Simple attraction morphs into a game of casual flirting, and before long, the detective and the ADA find themselves slipping into an intimacy of trust, friendship, and barely concealed attraction. But things don’t always run smoothly for the duo. A consummate professional, the ADA tries to keep it informal while the detective is a romantic at heart, uncertain how much longer she can handle the hot-cold attitude of the ADA. The question remains: who will break and make the first move? Let the waiting game begin…





	

_**WARNING/DISCLAIMER:** This is a _ _Barba x OC fanfiction._ _This is a slowburn but it may seem it's moving quickly as I'm not doing every episode. Yes it follows canon for the most part, though some parts of episodes will be moved around to better fit the story I want to tell. All chapters including graphic sex are marked with MA. Otherwise rated M for language and content. Please give it and my OC time to develop and reveal her growing character. If you want to see something please let me know in the reviews and I'll try to add it. Enjoy!_

_**NOTE: ** This episode aired while Cragen had returned but for story purposes Cragen is still gone. Its a dry read but meant only to introduce the characters and show how they'd react on a case. Probably one of the few times I'll be going through a full case as the other chapters will focus more on Sophia and Rafael and how they interact. For those looking for the action you might want to skip to chapter 2.  
_

* * *

** Waiting Game  
**

**Episode 14 x 08  
**

**Chapter 1: Lessons Learned  
**

* * *

"Ten victims stretching over thirty years." Detective Olivia Benson, one of the most senior officers of Manhattan SVU, shook her head in disdain. For as long as she did this, she still couldn't help but be shocked by some of this cases she was dealt. She and Fin Tutuola entered the squad room with a sluggishness in their steps, the latest of their many interviews finally over.

Detective Deveaux, the youngest member of their team, didn't even look up from her desk as she held up two new signed and sworn statements. "Make that twelve." Her lightly accented voice, droned. She let the files drop back onto her desk, continuing her writing.

While Sophia-Noelle Deveaux spoke English better than most of her colleagues, a hint of her distinct accent could still be heard under her carefully annunciation. Born and raised near the city of Montreal, Canada, she'd come to the States as an international student of NYU. A few years after, in love with a boy and the city itself, she decided to stay and immigrated.

She first crossed paths with the Special Victims Unit when she was still in uniform. John Munch, a seasoned detective in both homicide and SVU, had noticed her at quite a few crime scenes, her young freckled face and French tinted foreign accent tended to stand out. She had a remarkable way of getting victims to open up, her sympathetic smiles and sweet face always looking more like a concerned friend then a prying detective. It was a good skill to have in their line of work and, with their caseload high and their staff short, Cragen took the risk and recruited the fresh detective straight to SVU.

"How many more do you think we're gonna find?" Liv sighed, slinking into her desk chair across from Sophia. For a moment she just relaxed, letting her eyes close to rid herself of the overwhelming feeling of resentment. Well, she tried to...

"Okay, folks, listen up." Their temporary commander, Captain Harris requested their attention. "Looks like we're stuck together a little longer."

From across the bullpen Amanda Rollins, a brazen blonde transfer from Atlanta, balked at the announcement. "What? The Captain was cleared a month ago." Though she was one of the newer members of the squad, she'd felt the same sense of loyalty the rest of them did.

"Of criminal charges." Harris emphasized. "1PP still hasn't declared him fit for duty."

"1PP: the puzzle palace." John Munch, the oldest and most seasoned detective, was his usual morbid self.

"But they did say that he was coming back?" Sophia stressed. A flutter of panic momentarily overtook.

After Donald Cragen was set up and subsequently arrested, Harrison was assigned by the Public Integrity Bureau. A usual bureaucratic kick-around, he, like most officers, didn't understand the fine line SVU often had to walk. A regular by-the-book commanding officer, Harris had, in Sophia's opinion, an annoying habit of nitpicking the details. He didn't like the way Detective Tutuola and she dressed in casual clothing. He didn't like pressing cases that didn't seem clear cut. And his obsession with paperwork was bordering on maddening.

Busywork was all it was...

Filling out mileage logs, filing court appearances, citing overtime, and reviewing and organizing old case notes.

Overall, Harris wasn't exactly a bad replacement, but it seemed every case they brought him just wasn't enough. They had to make a case just to be able to pursue a case, an uphill battle that seemed to cripple them at every turn. At least with Cragen they felt like they had someone on their side. Someone on the victim's side.

"Far as I know." He assured. "Meantime, I've been thinking some things over."

A soft mumbling of french breached the air as Sophia closed her eyes. More bureaucracy.

"I'd like to move some pieces around on the board." He looked around the scattered detectives.

Munch leaned against Sophia's desk. "Great. You can move me back to France."

Sophia continued to fill out her paperwork. _"You don't speak French."_ She scolded him in the very language.

"What?" John joked making Sophia chuckle lowly with a shake of her head.

"Actually, I'm just teaming you up back up with your old partner." Harris nodded in the direction of Detective Fin Tutuola.

A seasoned black detective himself with a gift for undercover work in narcotics and gangs, he was never one to mince words. "Really?"

Munch looked offended at Fin's drop-jaw response. Amanda cut off his rebuttal. She and Fin had just started falling into the groove of being partners, and like the rest of them she wasn't sure a sudden shift was the best idea. "Captain, Fin and I have been kind of-"

"Getting to that." He interrupted. "I'd like to pair you up with Amaro. Benson and Devo, you'll-"

Sophie immediately let her eyes close as she lost focus in the conversation.

That would be the other thing she would gladly live without. As a child with a mouthful for a name she was fine with her name often being shortened by teachers, parents, partners and friends alike. Sophia-Noelle was a name that was rarely given its full due, much to her mother's chagrin. There was the ever simple "Sophie" used by most. The even shorter "Phie / Phia" from Fin and Liv. And the ever so rare call of "Nelly" reserved only for those of blood relation and a wish to die.

But Captain Steven Harris had been the first, and only, to shorten her surname. Deveaux, her proud French-Canadian surname had been shortened and butched into a '70s rock band.

And she didn't care for that shit at all...

With narrowed eyes she bit her tongue. Nodding along until he retreated back into his office.

She threw her pen down staring at the Captain's office over her shoulder. "I can't wait to have Cragen back." She sighed wistfully.

"If he comes back." Munch bleakly reminded.

The squad exchanged resolved expressions.

The Manhattan Special Victims Unit may not have been the dirtiest squadron but both 1PP and IAB had reason enough to dislike it. They always seemed to be behind on paperwork with little care for bureaucracy. They pushed hard to prosecute cases and were known for 'making cases where there were none'. And currently they were all being watched carefully after their rogue operation to clear their captains name. The result of which had done considerable damage to plenty of judges, prosecutors, and higher-ups who partook in Delia's illegal prostitution ring.

All in all, Manhattan SVU was persona non grata.

Everybody needed a sacrificial lamb, and it seemed like Cragen might just be it.

Their current investigation into a New York staple of education and culture sure as hell wasn't helping things.

Sophia sighed, pulling her thick curls into a messy ponytail. "All I know is that if he calls me 'Devo' one more time…" She let the threat hang as she grabbed her leather coat

Rollins handed her a few more milage forms as they passed each other, the taller woman quickly throwing them back on her desk to fill out later. She had real work to do.

"I thought Canadians were supposed to be extra nice?"

"I thought Southerners were supposed to have manners." She shot back, thickening her barely there accent for the fun of it.

"Good Luck, Maple Leaf."

Sophia couldn't help the grin that stretched across her freckled face. That's a new one. "Thanks, Georgia Peach."

* * *

Sophia almost thought she had the wrong office when she stepped into it. Her feet back tracking to check the gold plate that indeed read ADA R. Barba.

It was a far cry from the chaotic mess it had been when she first walked in months ago. Now the boxes of books were neatly in their shelves, the art that once leaned against the walls were hung, and the desks and table cleared of files.

At least for a short time.

"Isn't it strange how we have these inside jokes when we're kids that mean absolutely nothing to us just a few years later?" Sophia scanned the 'autograph' page of one of the many yearbooks they had brought with them, bored out of her mind as she waited for the ADA to get out of court.

From across the office, she heard Olivia sigh as she finished pushing in the last pin. The older detective checked her watch, equally anxious to present their already difficult case. Sophia slapped her hands together, the sound dulled by the thud of closing pages between them. "I'll check with his assistant, see where he is." She volunteered.

Camren, his secretary, wasn't outside the office. The man in question however was.

Rafael Barba was one of the better and bolder ADAs they had in awhile. Even Sophia, known for being a bit harsh toward the prosecutors, seemed to be giving him a chance. But that may or may not have to do with her being not so subtly attracted to him.

A classically handsome man, he had a strong jaw, sharp nose, and a natural tan from his Cuban heritage that did wonders to make his green eyes pop. His dark hair was traditionally cut short in a perfectly combed side part that never went out of style.

Style.

Probably one of the most distinguishing things about this ADA was how ridiculously preened he was. Leather shoes always shined, suit always pressed, and his shirt and pocket tie oddly yet perfectly matched with one of his many ties. Sophia had never a man who pulled off pink so well in her life.

Barba had stopped just short of colliding with the detective, lifting his head from his phone to look at her with slight surprise. They were roughly the same height, but in her heeled boots, she nearly towered over him today. The heels themselves only furthering to extend her thin, athletic appearance.

Sophia smiled a bit apologetically, knowing she'd startled him with the near collision. "Sorry." She patiently waited as he finished typing an email or text on his phone. In the moment of silence, she looked him over. Her eyes fell to his neck-wear, taking note of his tie as she always did, as he slipped his phone into his inner breast coat pocket. He began to undo a few of his coat buttons. He shifted his stance, looking at that ridiculously bright smile that seemed to be aimed at him.

Barba paused for a moment. Looking at her before his eyes fell to what she held in her hands. "Leaving for summer already, Deveaux?" His gaze jumped from the yearbook back to her, his green eyes scanning over her face in a quick habit he'd developed. There was one feature that had stole his attention from the first time they'd met. Faint light freckles scattered from cheek to cheek over her thin button nose, the light brown matching the gold in her hazel colored eyes. They gave her the appearance of looking younger than she was, friendlier, too.

From the first crack of "Take your daughters to work day" when he'd first run into them and their temporary Captain, he'd had a habit of joking about her youthful appearance.

Sophia took it all in stride, blatantly ignoring the dig or easily playing along. "Well I was gonna ask you to sign it, but if you're going to be mean." She held the leather bound book away him playfully, having forgotten it was in her hands. Her eyes dropped to the dark blue tie, liking the little pink squares that gave it detail. "Nice tie." She meant it. She always did. She wasn't sure Barba believed that though.

He looked at her with suspicious eyes and a forced smile. "What do you want?" Half believing she was trying to butter him up and half believing she was being petty. Either way, he wanted to change the subject.

Sophia flashed her sweetest smile. She stepped backwards into his office, leading his attention to the bulletin board she and Olivia had brought in. More importantly: to the pictures pinned to it.

She spun on her heels at the last moment, gracefully avoiding a near accident. "Harold Lassiter. Seventy-five. Retired private school English teacher." She pointed to the two pictures hand side by side, one portraying a frail older man and the other portraying said man hanging from a rafter in his apartment. "Neighbor found him after trying to complain about his music's volume."

"Suicide?" Rafael's eyebrows pinched. "How'd you catch that?"

Sophia shuffled a bit awkwardly, looking to Liv like a child caught doing something naughty.

"Uh, we got the call when Sophie's card was found on the body." Liv provided. "He came into the station earlier that night, wanting to speak to a detective."

The counselor's brows did a complete one-eighty, rising high on his forehead as he looked accusingly at the younger detective. Sloppy police work was his biggest pet peeve.

Sophia became defensive under the look. "It was a mess! We had four domestic cases, two rape interviews-"

"Everyone was spread thin, alright." Liv defended, putting her hands out to both stop Sophia's ranting and subtly tell Barba not to press further. From the corner of her eye she saw the detective's head fall, sending her dark curls curtaining her face. She'd been beating herself up about it enough as it was. Sophia was a good cop, rarely letting things slip through the cracks, but there was only so much one person could do. Benson didn't blame her.

"I told him to take a seat at my desk but, by the time I came back from finishing an interview, he was long gone. He must have taken the card from my desk." Sophia's fingers drummed nervously on the book in her hands.

"When he was found, he left this as a suicide note." She opened the book briefly to pull out a photocopy of the letter they'd been left. She handed it to the councilor as the book quietly thudded close.

"It's to him?" Rafael took notice of the top of the letter, before reading the highlighted passages aloud. ""You abused my trust. I can never erase the images of your hands on my body, Mr. Lassiter, I will never forgive you."" To the side of the letter, a different hand wrote in blue ink. ""I'm Sorry"?" Rafael looked to the detectives, reading it aloud like a question.

"The blue's a match to Lassitor's handwriting." Benson assured. "We suspected it could have been staged-"

"Was it?" He cut though. That was one thing about ADA Barba they both liked and loathed, he was a cut to the chase man.

"No." Liv smiled tiredly, looking to her left to exchange a tired look behind the ADA's back.

"So…" Rafael let it hang in the air, turning his back to them as he picked up his cup of coffee.

Sophia's head lulled back looking at the ceiling. Her eyes closed as he mouth opened. "He taught at Manor Hill Academy for over thirty years. Retired in '02."

That caught the counselor's attention.

Sophia opened her eyes, head falling to meet his narrowed gaze. "Yeah! _That_ Manor Hill." She smirked with mock cheerfulness. Barba's entire stance shifted, his back straightening to perfect posture as he looked between them.

Manor Hill was the fanciest school in the city. Twenty-five acres of rolling green hills, manicured grounds, and stone buildings older than most of the city. Those who went to Manor Hill were almost guaranteed to have a life of luxury and success from that day forward. Governors, mayors, three vice presidents, and over thirty millionaires were part of the alumni.

"So we started with Manor Hill, got a list of Lassiter's students-"

"For one kid?" It came out colder than it was meant, not that the child wasn't important but that the statute of limitation would have clearly already ran out. A lot of heat to bring down on them for one passed accusation that they weren't even sure was about sexual abuse.

Sophia's dark curls bounced as she shook her head angrily, whipping around to stare him dead in the eye. "When it it ever 'one kid', Barba?" She'd told Liv the same thing when they first caught the case.

The moment she held that letter in her hand she suspected it was the tip of a much larger iceberg. Sadly, she had been right. Liv flipped the board revealing a detailed overlap of the abuse. Four teachers topped the board, each having various strings leading to numerous victims. Sophia felt her stomach sink every time she looked at it. To be abused by one teacher was horrendous, to be abused by two, in one case three? It was hard to stomach.

"We found that Lassiter wasn't an isolated predator."

"Shockingly." Sophia glanced at Barba. "We're looking at three decades of sexual abuse, a dozen victims and counting." She waved her hands over the twelve victims who they could confirm, but every day it seemed a few more popped up, not wanting to be outed or talk about it but wanting to lend the support to the others claims.

Barba's stood before the board eyes tracing the lines, back and forth.

"At least four of the teachers were serial abusers, all under the previous headmaster."

"Terrific graphic work. Any of this happen in the last five years?" Barba began. He was a suave silver-tongued arguer that always seemed to speak a bit faster than necessary when argumentative. Sophia wasn't sure if it was a court tactic, his natural state, or just a side effect of his seemingly constant coffee consumption. Her eyes flicked to the blue and white cardboard cup out of habit.

"No-" Liv barely finished before he was onto the next question, already anticipating the answer.

"Are any of the victims under twenty-three now?" His green eyes widened, chin tilting towards his chest in a pleading look to Sophia. Anything, anything at all to build a case on, he silently begged.

"No, but we've got-"

"Okay, different states do have different statutes." Barba turned again, his back to them as the door opened. His assistant, Carmen, presented him with a few documents needing to be signed. Rafael didn't even hesitate as he took the clipboard and gave his signature. "Did any of this take place on a field trip or a sports team road trip?" He finished his name with a flourish, tapping the pen forcefully at the end before giving the papers back. "Connecticut, Massachusetts?" He threw out ideas, eyes returning to Sophia once more. They seemed to do that on their own accord quite often.

He paused, breaking his run when he caught her silently smiling, her hazel eyes glimmering with irritation, her smile playful. "Hey, just a suggestion, but do you ever think about going off caffeine?"

His own lips twitched in a smile. "That'd be a no." He took another sip of the bitter liquid. "So why are you here again?" He looked between them.

"If you'd let us get a word in, counselor…" Olivia tried to play diplomat.

Sophia wasn't so kind. "Do you think if I throw this book at you it'll give us time to finish a sentence?" Sophia's fingers tightened on the 1985 yearbook in her hands. Tapping it with her short nails to emphasize her point.

"Probably not." Barba smirked.

Olivia looked from her partner to the ADA. Ever since their first meeting there always seemed to be this little tension between them, a fine line that Olivia couldn't decide was mocking dislike or thinly veiled blatant flirtation.

After a moment he threw out his now empty coffee cup. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, and giving her a hint of a smile as if agreeing to behave. He nodded for her to continue.

"Thank you." Sophie's head tilted in that way he'd come to expect when she got her way. "This was systematic abuse. It is highly unlikely that no one in the school's administration didn't know about it."

"Highly unlikely?" He repeated, nearly gapping at the flimsiness of the argument. Sophia's nails stopped tapping the year book. Realizing his mistake, Babra pulled a hand from his pocket holding it out in defense from the sudden narrowed gaze he was receiving. "That's a long way from beyond a reasonable doubt."

He picked up one of the yearbooks scattered haphazardly on the round conference table beside him. The gold script of Manor Hill - Class of... staring mockingly back at him as it glittered under the lights. Fancy script hiding dirty deeds.

He didn't like it anymore then they did. But he couldn't persecute something that couldn't be proven as against the law. They had to prove someone at the school knew, or at least had a suspicion, abuse was taking place and didn't report it. Rafael felt his head begin to buzz in an emerging headache.

"Have you been to the school?" He asked, tossing the book back into the pile.

"Obviously they were less than forthcoming. We had to get names and yearbooks from a friend of Fin's who went there on scholarship."

"He's now on the board." Sophia added, explaining how they came across the forty years of yearbooks that now took up his conference table.

"Okay, back up." Barba's eyes narrowed, looking over the board in both thought and loathing as he looked between the four men's smug faces. "Lassiter hanged himself." He stepped closer to the board stopping between the detectives. "Are any of the others still working?"

"The previous headmaster and Strepek are both deceased." Olivia sighed.

"Mercer, the swim coach, he's in Thailand. At least, that's where his social security checks are being sent. But Morton here-" She tapped the suspect's picture. "-did teach until a few years ago."

"So it is possible that his abuse falls within the statute." He looked to Sophia. His eyes fell, staring at the floor before taking up her body and back to her face. A sudden decisiveness in his green eyes as he looked at her. Sophia let out a calming breath, she knew they had him now.

"If he did abuse students, he won't admit it. Tell him you already know. He might try to save himself by turning on Manor Hill." He head dipped towards the board. "Schools like this, there's an insularity, a culture of secrecy and self-preservation. If you want those fieldstone walls to tumble, you're gonna need heavy artillery." His eye flicked from the yearbook in her hand to the victorious smirk on her pink lips. "A bit more than a high school yearbook."

* * *

Morton was, of course, a complete bust. The signs of forgetfulness that led him to early retirement had developed into full blown Alzheimer's disease by the time Fin and Rollins got to him. A few minutes into the conversation, it was clear that no matter what they managed to get out of him would never hold up in court.

They were officially at a dead end.

At least until another former Manor Hill teacher, Mr. Thompkins, walked into a station with some interesting information. He himself had abused students in the '70s and '80s, claiming it was a different time and it was strictly consensual between him and the three boys. Sophia watched from the other side of the glass as he admitted to his past deeds. Not in an admission of guilt, but in the honest regret that one of his past lovers might have felt victimized. Sophia almost felt bad, seeing how genuinely upset he seemed to be at the idea of causing harm to a child.

"Mr. Tompkins? Why are you guys talking to him? He's everyone's favorite teacher."

Curt Haskins, Vincent Moran, and Eli Fromson, the three most vocal victims pushing the case, stood in the office with Sophia and the ADA.

"Because he came in and confessed." Sophia crossed her arms, leaning against the Captain's desk. "He had sex with two students." She calmly told him, no matter the time, or reason behind it, it was a crime.

"I've talked to twenty-five victims. No one mentioned him." They seemed just as confused as the detective were.

The door connecting the office ot the interview room opened, Olivia slipping in to give them an update while Nick went over the sworn affidavit with him. "He feels that the school may have known but chose not to do anything." She updated.

" _Of course_ they knew! They're _still_ covering it up!"

From beside Sophia the ADA finally stopped tapping on his phone. "Tompkins had no proof and, as of now, neither do we."

"So you're just gonna drop this case?" The victims were outraged.

"There _is_ no case." Rafael stressed. "Lassiter and Strepek are dead, Mercer's halfway around the world, and Morton is senile."

"I'm getting calls and emails from more survivors. People who have repressed all of this. Most of us never talked to each other before. This is more widespread than any of us knew."

"It's an outrage, I agree." Barba sympathized. "But the only possible case is against the school, if it knew about the abuse and covered it up."

"They knew." Vincent, one of the first to come forward nearly sneered. "My dad told 'em." This was new information, as shown by the intense shift of the detectives and prosecutors attention.

"What?" Barba asked for clarification, knowing it wasn't uncommon for victims to forget to mention details they didn't think were important at the time. Didn't stop him from hating it all the same.

"After I got gonorrhea, my dad became suspicious of Strepek. I told him nothing happened, but he went straight to the school. He confronted the headmaster."

Barba's gears began turning behind his narrowed green eyes. "This headmaster, he deceased?" Vincent noded. _Of course he was._ "Can your father confirm this meeting?"

"He's gone, too but I'll testify." He offered.

"If it comes to that." Barba nodded, knowing how hard it was to call witnesses to the stand, even harder when so much time had passed and it was a male victim. On some occasions it made a conviction, on other occasions it completely unraveled it.

But Barba wasn't the only negative-nancy of the bunch. "The school won't let it." Curt, the man who'd set the case in motion, shot him down. "I sent the Board an email petition. I got a call back from their lawyer threatening to sue me for defamation." He scoffed.

"That's a legal maneuver. It doesn't rise to the level of a crime," Barba assured.

"I don't care about charges!" Eli sputtered. "I-I-I mean, would it kill them to just acknowledge that something bad happened?"

"How 'bout an apology?" Curt seethed.

"He's right." Olivia agreed. "An apology can make a huge difference in getting closure."

"And it can also be perceived as an admission of guilt. Which leaves the school open to liability claims." Barba's stance straightened. "They'd rather close ranks."

"So abuse means never having to say you're sorry?"

"We have to push back." Olivia wouldn't just let this go. If they couldn't get them on criminal charges, they'd at least get the victims the closure they deserved.

Sophia stood from her place at the desk, approaching Barba to speak in hushed tones. "An ADA asking to meet with the headmaster? That's heavy artillery." She threw his earlier words back at him. Barba still looked unsure. Sophia dipped her head a bit closer, staring into those green eyes without an ounce of hesitation. "A month ago I watched you put a belt around your neck and nearly strangled by a serial rapist. Now you're telling me you can't handle a meeting?" Her head tilted in that little way that he was quickly beginning to tell was used to get her way. It added to the crinkle in her freckled nose and her light teasing smirk.

The warm goading smile was enough to thaw the ice cold look he gave her. "I'll make a call." He conceded, swallowing thickly at the sudden warm feeling that look gave him.

The smile she graced him with did nothing to stop it. "Thank you." She rose her voice, no longer the intimate whisper it was. With a quick polite nod to the others as goodbye, he walked out of the office.

Olivia wandered up beside her, her voice low as she and Sophie watched Rafael bee-line for the elevators. "I think you drive him a little crazy." She mused.

A self satisfied smirk flashed on the Canadian's lips. "Good."

* * *

Barba had come through. By the end of the week, they had their meeting. Sophia looked out of place in her leather jacket, jeans, and boots but she carried herself with an ease of confidence as she sat slouching in her chair. She might have looked like riff-raff amongst the suits and skirts but, as far as she was concerned, she and her end of the table easily had the moral high ground. Her posture might be slacking but her chin was raised, looking down her nose at the men the same way they did her.

"I took the liberty of inviting Brett Forrester, our Board Chair." Mr. Lennox, the current headmaster introduced the older and more cankerous looking man. He and Sophia shared a cold look across the table.

"And your attorney?" Barba took the seat to her left, Olivia already seated on the right. "Long time no see, Ms. Calhoun." He smirked at the defense attorney. He was allowed to be smug, as the last time they'd met he'd gotten a guilty verdict with longest sentence possible for her client. "I'm glad Manor Hill's taking these charges seriously."

"Like hell we are!" Mr. Forrester scoffed. "I have no idea why we're meeting."

"It never hurts to listen, Brett." Lennox played peacekeeper.

"Well, now you are." Sophia's naturally friendly looking face blurred her near sneer into a innocent half-smile. "We've spoken with over two dozen Manor Hill alumni who were abused while they were students here."

" _Alleged_ they were abused." Calhoun corrected. "And they waited, what? Twenty, thirty years to come forward?"

Olivia looked at her with a calculated gaze. No cop had ever come across a private defense attorney that didn't make their skin crawl. The bigger the paycheck, the more the itch. "I'm sure that you know, given the _stigma_ of this kind of abuse, that the time delay is not unusual."

"It's also unverifiable and subject to manipulation, which is why the statute of limitations was put into effect."

Calhoun was on and ready for a fight. But so was Barba. "That doesn't apply if the school failed to report the abuse and continues to cover up its failure to report."

"If you had any evidence of that, you wouldn't be here on this fishing expedition. Or is there something specific you wanted?" She challenged.

"Yeah, for starters, the victims would like an apology." Sophia uncrossed her legs, leaning over the table to invade a bit of their space.

Barba watched from the corner of his eye in slight wonder. All that friendliness had slowly shifted, her strong bone structure seemingly to tighten to sharp edges, as her eyes stared daggers into Forrester's soul. The detective known for friendly face was nearly unrecognizable as she played a role she rarely got to: bad cop.

"Excuse me?" Forrester challenged.

"It would help their healing to hear an acknowledgment of wrongdoing." She said calmly.

"It would also help them sue Manor Hill." Calhoun advised.

The headmaster cleared his throat, a bit more shaken by the detectives stare than the others. "I am sorry for their pain. But you have to understand the school's reputation and mission are at stake."

"You're worried about your reputation?" Barba snapped his green eyes to him. "Talk to anyone in PR. You want to get in front of this thing before it explodes in your face." He advised in a friendly tone, shifting into the good-cop/bad-cop role before he even registered what he was doing.

"I've heard enough." Forrester stopped the meeting. "My grandfather, my father, myself, my son all graduated from Manor Hill. Four generations. We created leaders in art, science, business, politics."

"It also created victims." Benson tried to appeal to their pity. "Victims who suffer with failed relationships, unemployment, substance abuse. I could go on..."

"They drink too much and get divorced?" Forrester flashed his aged yellow teeth at them in a less than friendly smile. "A lot of people have disappointing lives. These failures are just trying to excuse their own behavior."

"Wyatt Michaels didn't have a disappointing life." Sophia's face was stoic, her tone passive. "He had money, looks, full ride to Princeton." She shrugged. "Didn't stop him from shooting himself in the head days after telling his mother he'd contracted an STD from one of his abusers. He was scared he had contracted AIDs and how his Catholic parents would react." It was tragic, how misinformation and social stigma of the time had turned a preventable abuse into a preventable tragedy.

One life had been lost. At least a dozen ruined.

Sophia just couldn't comprehend how they could sit there and appear not to care in the slightest.

Calhoun inhaled deeply through her nose. "Suicide is _tragic_ but not-"

"We're only asking Manor Hill to do the right thing." Olivia closed her eyes, asking in the politest way she could as she too began to lose her patience.

Forrester, the clear head of this little council, stood without remorse. "The right thing is to protect this institution. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to prepare for our capital campaign reception tonight."

* * *

Rafael cleared his throat wanting to break the silence they walked in. In the months he'd worked with her, he'd never seen the detective look so downtrodden. "Nice campus." Barba looked around the rolling green fields and red brick building. "As a kid growing up in the South Bronx going to Catholic school, I would've given anything to go here." He realized after he said it that it was more information he meant to give.

He cast a glance out of the corner of his eye only to see her with a charmingly confused smile. " _You_ couldn't get a scholarship?" She gaped. "Mr. Harvard?!"

He was torn between smiling and frowning, his head tilting away instead. "How did you know-"

"The very subtle diploma on the wall." She explained, missing the look she received from him. It actually wasn't that blatant, framed amongst a few other credentials and mementos in his office, but Sophia wasn't about to make him uncomfortable with the confession she'd gotten bored waiting in his office and began exploring the decorum. He seemed the type to like to keep things personal, a sharp contrast to the friendly and open detective.

The conversation lulled as they began down a flight of stairs, Benson on the phone a few yards behind them. Not wanting it to stop, Barba continued with a hint of humor in his tone. "Only kids they took from my neighborhood were the athletes." He didn't think he had to explain that he wasn't exactly one of them. He was in good shape for a man in his forties, but he'd never been an athletic child. He prefered the comforts of books and knowledge to kicking around a rubber ball and tackling people for fun. Of course his small frame and poor hand eye coordination didn't much help either.

As his thoughts shifted towards his past, Barba became agitated. He could have been these kids and, once upon a time, minus the abuse, he'd have given anything to be. As they approached the car, that friendly conversation ended as soon as it began. He didn't want to come here again just to be faced with the same results. He had winnable cases to be focused on, victims who could still get justice, families who still has a chance at closure.

"With all due respect, this was a waste of time." He argued, catching Sophia off guard at the shift in conversation. "I'm a prosecutor, not a healer." He wasn't needed just to get an apology. They'd have to do that themselves.

Sophia paused at the front of the parking lot. "I know something illegal happened here and you know it, too. And the entire point of this is that we know they know something happened here and they chose to let it slide."

"I need concrete evidence if you-"

"Are you scared?" She challenged him, upset at being challenged and realizing maybe he wasn't the prosecuted she had built him up to be. "Because this isn't Brooklyn, it's Manhattan. There'll be plenty of millionaires, and athletes,and diplomats and, yeah, the occasional good ol' cop and society's elite that you have to go against. This squad makes enemies in high places, and so will you. If you can't handle that, then get out and find me a prosecutor who's up for it." She glared daggers at him, her anger unable to hide the hint of hurt in her eyes as she stared him down over the car's hood. "You don't get a free pass on molesting children just because you turned out a few congressmen."

And with that she turned, leaving him to get a ride with Olivia as she walked off to her own car.

Rafael watched him walk away, feeling worse than he had as he nearly growled as his head fell in slight shame, looking at the hood of the car before glancing back at her and then the towering red brick building of the school, a new resolve in his features.

_Damn her._

* * *

The squad, sans Harris and Munch, were called into an ADA conference room a day later. The unsaid speculation wide-spread. They were being told to drop the case.

So color them surprised when the door to the conference room was torn open, the ADA appearing in a flurry. As always, he was at full speed, barely a breath taken between words. "Okay. Their lawyer thinks we're on a fishing expedition? Let's go fishing."

Sophia and a few other looked up started when Barba dropped his briefcase on the table with a clank, appearing from nowhere it seemed. He unbuttoned his coat with one handed skilled precision as he often did when out of court, taking it off and folding it over the back of chair Sophia rested her crossed heels on.

After a brief pause where they collected themselves, they quickly focused on the task at hand, the ADAs frantic energy fighting their downtrodden mood.

"Uh, Curt is trying to prove that a complaint was indeed made to the school." Olivia stopped her pacing.

"Vincent gave us access to his medical records." Fin piled on from his seat at the conference table. "He did have an STD as a student, and he's ready to testify."

"What's on our side? A way around the statute of limitations. If the school received an allegation and didn't report and has continued efforts to block discovery of the abuse..."

Sophia looked at him with this little smile, a wonder in her eyes as her lips tilted into a smile. She hadn't been able to look away from the moment he stormed in. A look missed by almost all except caught by a brief glance from the counselor. He stared back with a look of acceptance in his eye. He had no plans of surrendering.

"What's against us? All the witnesses to the report we heard about are dead: Vincent's father, the old headmaster, Strepek." Nick was a close second to Munch when to came to pessimism.

"I may have another way in." Rollins stole the attention as she read through an article on her laptop. "I'm going over the alumni newsletters. Manor Hill gave Strepek a going-away party nine years ago."

"He would've been what, fifty-seven?" Sophia corrected her posture, turning towards the other detective and placing her feet on the ground. "Pretty young for that school." She leaned her arms against the countertop looking at the rest of the table. "Maybe they forced him into early retirement because they knew?" She mused.

"Well, if they knew, they kept it to themselves." Rollins scoffed. "Look at this. Two months later, they've got no problem congratulating Mr. Strepek at his hire at a charter school in Harlem."

Barba felt the thrill of the chase begin as he looked over the board of evidence. "We're getting closer." He nodded to them over his shoulder, sitting atop the end of the table. "Talk to that charter school. Give me something I take to a grand jury." He dismissed them, opening the case files to begin his preparation.

Sophia was the last to leave, leisurely standing up and stretching as she look at him with a glimmer in her eye. "You're cute when you're vicious." She smiled before following the rest out the door, leaving a stunned Barba standing at his desk, a rare instant when no smart mouth reply could come to mind.

_Damn her twice._

* * *

Manor Hill may have been great at covering their tracks on paper, but there was no way they could gag all their staff. A vigilant charter school principal and a guilt ridden-secretary was just what they needed to put the final nail in Manor Hills' coffin. But just when their case began to come together on one end, it fell apart on the other. Barba had been able to take it to a grand jury but Vincent, the star witness, skipped out moments before being called to the stand, making the ADA look like a fool and sending the entire squad on a wild goose chase.

Detectives Deveaux and Amaro kept pace with the ADA as they walked up the court steps. "They picked Vincent up at a dive hotel with a hooker and some bad coke. The doctors hope that he'll be coherent by tomorrow." Amaro caught him up to speed.

"That's just _terrific_." Barba scoffed.

"He screwed up, it happens in cases like these, but it speaks to your case 'cause of what happened to him at Manor Hill." Nick tried to argue.

"What he says happened. There's no record of his father complaining, and Vincent's credibility is shot now, even with me." Barba argued. "We need something tangible."

"Well, what about the gonorrhea?" Sophia reminded, tangible, scientific proof that linked the abuser and the abused together.

Barba shook his head. "Medical records prove that he had it. Doesn't prove who he got it from."

"Unless we get Strepek's medical records." Sophia offered offhanded turning to the side to avoid colliding with a rushing lawyer, barely avoiding spilling her coffee.

"And see if he had it at the same time?" Nick finished, a little dubious about the plan.

Barba stopped, this time it was Sophia that nearly collided with him as he spun around. "That's good." He looked between the detectives. "The jury might make that leap. But medical records are privileged, even after death. You need permission from Strepeks next of kin, if you can even find out who that is..."

"We're on it." Sophia nodded, tapping Nick''s arm to follow her.

"You said that last time." Rafae referred to what she said when she was mean to be watching the witness. He slipped away in the bathroom, somewhere she couldn't exactly hover over him.

"Don't be a dick." Sophia shouted back in that usual calm voice, not bothering to turn back around. She wanted this case finished once and for all.

* * *

A folder landed on his desk, mildly startling the ADA halfway into his signature.

His wide green eyes met Sophia's tired looking face.

How was she so silent?

"Strepeks only living relative is a second cousin." She nearly sighed, exhausted from their long car ride all the way across the state.

Rafael missed the point, leaning to the side to look around her at the door that currently supported and equally tired Detective Rollins. He didn't hear them come in.

"Did Carmen let you in?" He questioned.

Sophia's brows narrowed in confusion. "Carmen went home."

"When?!" He looked surprised.

Sophia's brown brows rose. "Probably around eight like most court officials." She supplied. He still looked confused. "You are aware it's ten o'clock, aren't you?" Her head tilted teasingly. "Or is age getting the better of you?"

His smile belied his lack of amusement. He'd lost track of time in his work, contrary to the squads belief, he still had other cases needing his attention."Strepeks medical records?" He got back on task.

"Second cousin gave the okay. Such a strange and awkward conversation, but we got the records." She watched him open the folder.

Rollins pushed away from the door, cutting to the chase. "Strepek did have gonorrhea three weeks before Vincent Moran was diagnosed."

"Gonorrhea, the gift that keeps giving."

This time he did hear the door open. Calhoun marched across the carpeted floor, a never-good blue paper in her hand. "Sorry to interrupt the celebration. I understand you're looking at Benjamin Strepeks medical records."

Barba's eyes narrowed into something fierce, looking to Amaro and Deveaux only to find them just as surprised. "That was fast." He drew out staring at her in trepidation.

"Manor Hill is beloved." She smirked. "You can't use those records. They're privileged."

Barba gave a lopsided grin, "Next of kin waive privilege. Please come again." He nearly sung.

His smugness was short lived. "CPLR, Section 4504, Subsection C: No one can waive a dead person's patient/doctor privilege with respect to records that would disgrace the memory of the decedent." She gave over that cursed blue paper. "Here is our motion to the supervising judge. Always a pleasure." And with that she left as quickly as she appeared. A quiet hurricane to destroy their case.

"You can't speak ill of the dead because that would be speaking ill of the dead?" Rollins balked. "She's gotta be joking."

"She's not. It's a law. An obscure one, but a law." Barba nearly growled.

"So what are we gonna do?"

"Argue that it doesn't apply."

Sophia didn't like where this was heading. "But what Strepek did was disgraceful."

"Maybe not, if we can put this thing in a different context. You think it was disgraceful. I think it was disgraceful. That teacher that you interviewed, uh...Tompkins. He said back in the day, sex with students was warm and affectionate, not disgraceful. Get him to tell that to the judge."

"So we're going to argue that...raping boys is morally acceptable?"

"Raping boys? Tompkins said that it was loving, consensual sex." He ignored the look of disgust on the women's faces. "Lose the battle. Win the war."

* * *

Sophia didn't know whether to be happy or not that the tactic failed. What she did know was that there was something inherently wrong with the only man that didn't have a complaint being used as a scapegoat.

"A news brief just posted by The Ledger." Amanda called out to the squad. "Manor Hill has been made aware of the pedophile who taught there decades ago. The school is outraged that he can't be prosecuted." She read.

Munch looked at them with his usual stoic expression. "Otherwise, everything is all good there, always has been." He shook his head.

"Smart play." Amaro commended their tactic bitterly. "Burying the big story with the little one."

"Barba have a plan to get past this?" Fin challenged them, looking to Sophia, the detective that worked most directly with him. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure he's open to suggestions."

A phone clambered back onto its hook, drawing their attention to Benson. "Sophie, that was one of the former students Tompkins had a relationship with. He saw the article and he wants to come in."

Two steps back, one step forward...

* * *

"So are you gonna arrest Walter Tompkins?" The former victim, now easily in his late fifties tightened his hands around the cup of coffee between them. He nodded in thanks to the younger detective as she took a seat next to her partner across from him.

"No." Benson sadly shook her head. "It's been too long. I'm so sorry if you wanted to testify against him."

"Against him? I want to testify for him."

Both detectives shared a quick glance. This was such a weird case, Sophie's eyes narrowed.

"You said that he had sex with him you when you were a student." She was more vocal in her confusion.

"I was eighteen." His lips twitched in a smile. "Look, I'd known I was gay since I was six. It's very hard. Walter let me know it was okay."

"Well, we've met a lot of former Manor Hill students who don't feel 'okay' about what happened to them there." Benson tired not to make her tone accusing, still so unsettled by the relationships and how they were viewed. It didn't matter the age or the time. It was a misuse of power.

"Then they weren't involved with Walt." He defended. The caressing tone made Sophie shift in her seat. "But you've heard about this other teacher, Strepek?"

"The name's come up." They played coy, unable to encourage him lest it come back to bite them in the ass.

"Strepek. Somehow...found out about the relationship between me and Tompkins." He swallowed thickly, looking at the coffee to distract himself. "I guess I seemed like easy pickings. He came onto me. He was pushing himself on me. I told my mother what Strepek was up to." He looked up at them sharply. "She wrote a letter to the school complaining about him."

"Do you have a copy of that letter?" Benson's voice was unarguably hopeful. Sophie didn't allow herself that privilege.

"No." He shook his head. "But I saw the letter they wrote back. It was signed by a member of the Board." He tried to think of the name. "Foster or, no, no, uh-Forrester."

"Brett Forrester?" Sophia's eyes widened just a fraction.

"Yeah."

Knowing how this case kept going, Sophia fought not to get her hopes up. "Is there any chance your mother kept that letter?"

* * *

Brett Forrester may have been able to deny the suffering of others, but when it hit too close to home, he couldn't deny its impact. His own son had been discovered to be one of Strepek's victims, recognized from the support group by Amaro and Liv, forcing him to deal with the aftermath of abuse first hand.

The squad had gone to the public apology earlier that night. They, along with ADA Barba, stood in the back in a show of support and strength. They may not have been able to make a case, but they had forced the school to take responsibility for their lack of action. They had given victims a bit of closure and a sounding board. They didn't have to suffer alone. They didn't have to fear the consequences of speaking out.

It was a win for them all the same.

The case that never seemed to end was finally put to rest. But, as tired as she was, Sophie had still volunteered to take Amaro's late night shift of catching the walk-ins so he could spend some time with his daughter. She had her own reasons as well...

Alone in the bullpen, she allowed herself to get caught up on paperwork. Her attention going to the form moving through the mostly dark office space. When the light to the Captain's office switched on, she rose from her desk.

It felt right seeing Donald Cragen standing behind that desk. A flash of a younger him sitting in a smaller, more cluttered office coming to her mind, making her shift her feet nervously just as she had the first time she met him. "Hey!" She cheerfully greeted.

Cragen turned at the voice, hoping he wouldn't be met with a bunch of overly eager detectives. Instead it was just the one. "Did you kids behave for the substitute?" He put his box of personal items on his desk. Hoping to get it done tonight so that he could get straight back to work come morning.

Harris has told the team he was leaving as an apology, pretending not to be hurt at how glad they all seemed to have Cragen back.

"Well, as much as our squad is known for." She alluded to their overall history of going against 1PP's wishes. Cragen didn't hide his sad amusement at the joke. If it wasn't for that history of rogue operations he mostly likely wouldn't be here.

He opened his drawer, putting a few case files away. "Harris tells me you've been getting along with the new ADA. Liv tells me you drive him a little crazy." Sophia coyly crossed her arms. Leaning against the open doorframe, she shrugged. "You going to let this one stick around?" He joked, knowing she wasn't the easiest detective to deal with when it came to prosecution.

She grinned in mild mischief, a flash of green eyes and fancy ties crossing her thoughts. "Maybe."

"Sophia." He called her back when she tried to leave, knowing he wasn't one for attention.

She popped her head back into the office, hugging the doorframe. _"Oui?"_

He looked at her studiously. "You didn't know I was coming in tonight?"

"Nope." She shook her head.

"So I guess he's the one who left this-" He pulled a large tub of twizzlers from the shelf behind him."In my office?" It was a personal favorite of his, a sugary indulgence he allowed himself. It had taken the place of drinking long ago. It was also something not many people knew.

Sophia blinked, using that innocent look she'd mastered oh so many years ago. "I guess so." She shrugged, disappearing from the frame once more.

"Sophie." He called again.

This time her smile was strained. _She really did have paperwork to catch up on…_ "Yes, Captain?"

"Thanks."

Sophia didn't respond still pretending not to know what he was talking about. Still pretending he wasn't predictable to her after a decade working with him. Still pretending she didn't know just how badly he might need that small comfort after the ordeal he'd been put through.

She merely nodded. A friendly smile passed between them, and they each went back to work fixing up their desks.

Things could finally go back to how they should be.

* * *

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